56 pages 1 hour read

Haruki Murakami

The Elephant Vanishes: Stories

Fiction | Short Story Collection | Adult | Published in 1993

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“The Little Green Monster”Chapter Summaries & Analyses

“The Little Green Monster” Summary

The story begins with the female narrator sitting alone and looking at a lone oak tree in her garden. She remarks that she often speaks to this tree. One day, she sees an ugly little green monster burrow out from the earth near her oak tree. The woman retreats to the back room of her house in horror as the monster approaches her door, knocks, and finally breaks in. The monster finds the woman, who realizes that it can read her mind. Telepathically, the monster professes his love for the woman, saying he has come from deep within the earth to win her hand. The woman, however, rejects the monster, and uses his ability to read her mind against him: She imagines all kinds of cruel tortures for the monster, until the monster withers away and dies, turning into nothing more than a shadow.

“The Little Green Monster” Analysis

Dense with symbolism, this story explores themes of Internality and Social Relationships as well as the nature of reality. The narrator’s confession that she often speaks to the tree evokes a sense of loneliness and solitude, but when she gets the opportunity to connect with another living thing—the little green monster—she kills him.

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